Crypto Trends Weekly March 19 – 25

Breaking crypto news from the last week (Mar. 19 – 25, 2022):

Mar. 19: After the US authorities have seized $7.1 billion of assets belonging to Afghanistan, the liquidity crisis in the country unable users to cash out their own money or take loans. As a result, Afghanistan has become the 20th country out of 154 fastly adopting crypto.

Mar. 20: Since the Bored Ape Yacht Club launched its own ApeCoin (APE) on March 17, it has become the most traded token among Ethereum whales. Now, the BAYC trailer posted to social media hints at a 3D gaming metaverse powered by Animoca, while TIME Magazine and other prominent firms will soon begin accepting ApeCoin as payment.

Mar. 21: Goldman Sachs announced it became the first major US bank to have made an over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency transaction. The bank bought an OTC Bitcoin non-deliverable option (NDO) from Galaxy Digital. The bank’s first OTC crypto transaction could spur other Wall Street giants to follow suit.

Mar. 22: The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market has issued a consultation paper regarding NFT rules. The paper proposed significant enhancements to the regulatory framework. As NFTs go mainstream, ADGM may soon give license operators the right to legally trade NFTs.

Mar. 23: Cypher Capital, a Dubai-based venture capital company, is launching a $100 million seed fund aimed at investing in crypto and digital assets. It plans to invest up to 40% of its funds in the emerging blockchain and crypto startups in India.

Mar. 24: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub collaborated with central banks from Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa to develop prototypes of two versions for an international settlement platform that uses different central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Mar. 25: Nuqtah NFTs, Saudi’s first NFT marketplace, is bringing non-fungible tokens to Saudi Arabia to breed a new line of art investors and enable creators toward the wildest opportunities, CEO Salwa Radwi says. The startup will use the pre-seed investments from Shorooq Partners to grow its network across the MENA region.